Chapter 1265: A Magnificent Blow

「Teyaaaaah! Curry Slash!」

No, hold on! T-That name…!?

However, my blade was swung before I had a chance to respond.

Accelerated by a sheath of wind, I flew down vertically on Nameless with godspeed. A golden trail followed, as Nameless was cleaved in two.

「GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!」

Nameless screamed as the golden aura exploded within him. There were evident signs of disturbance within his mana.

『It’s working!』

「Nn!」

The so-called “Curry Slash” was pretty damn strong, and the golden aura could be considered the same color as curry! But do we really need to keep that name…?

「It’s… not over yet!」

Fran attempted to follow up with another hit, but Nameless escaped via teleportation.

『Looks like he can’t regenerate anymore.』

「Nn!」

We literally bisected Nameless, from the top of his head to the crotch, and the wound hadn’t healed at all. He seemed to be using mana to forcefully glue the two halves back together.

「It won’t heal…!」

Moreover, we had dealt a significant blow to his mana and evil energy reserves. He lost more than half, probably around 70%.

「Why…? Gah…」

Nameless seemed quite panicked at the lack of his regeneration. Whatever! We can discuss the technique name later! Finishing off Nameless is more important right now!

『It’s now or never!』

「Nn!」

There were still traces of my mana within Nameless, disrupting his internal functions and hindering his regeneration. Now is our chance to defeat him!

We had Urushi attack again, with a surprise attack from Nameless’s shadow. This time, however, it wasn’t just a simple bite.

『That’s divine energy!』

（Nice one, Urushi!）

For some reason, Urushi’s fangs were radiating a divine aura.

「Stop interfering, mutt!」

「Grrr!」

While Nameless made a desperate attempt to dodge Urushi, his reaction time was much slower now. This prevented him from completely avoiding Urushi’s large maw extending from the ground.

Nameless was barely holding his body together, after all.

「Nurgh!」

「Arf! Crunch, crunch!」

「How dare you chew my bones!」

Urushi only managed to get Nameless’s ankles and feet, but he made a show of crushing and munching on them, provoking Nameless and drawing his attention.

Moreover, his feet weren’t regenerating either. Regeneration inhibition shouldn’t work on undead, which means this is the effect of the divine attribute.

So the divine attribute works perfectly against Nameless now that the golden aura is messing him up.

『Fran! Let’s finish him off!』

（Nn!）

Defeating Nameless was our priority, but we mustn’t let our killing intent show.

We quietly gathered our strength while falling back to conceal ourselves. However, we were prevented from executing this plan.

Much to our surprise, Laranflura suddenly dove into action despite appearing to be on the defensive.

「Die! Whipmaster!」

She charged forward, taking attacks from Apollonius and the others head on. It was as if she had forgotten all the evasive maneuvers she was performing only a few seconds ago.

Laranflura maximized her barrier output, deflected everything, and fixed her eyes on a single woman.

That target was Amanda, currently standing in the back to protect Maleficent and Persona.

Laranflura’s charge was quick, but not unavoidable given Amanda’s abilities. But for some reason, Amanda’s attempts to run ended up being extremely slow and sluggish.

「As I thought!」

Putting on a menacing smile, Laranflura shouted with confidence. It seems she knew that Amanda’s movements would become sluggish when facing her.

That said, Laranflura’s true goal was likely to distract us from striking down her ally Nameless rather than killing Amanda.

It was as if her speed was precisely calculated.

She was fast enough to prevent Amanda from evading, but slow enough to give us the chance of intervening if we do so immediately.

No wait! She suddenly accelerated! Perhaps she thought that diverting our attention from Nameless for a moment was enough to help him escape!

This is bad! I can’t cast a teleport in time! Amanda will get cut down before I’m done casting!

The Hero Zombies were also slow to respond. To them, Amanda wasn’t a high priority escort target. They probably would only shield Fran without hesitation, but not her…

The distance between Amanda and Laranflura was only a few meters. A blink of the eye for people of their caliber. All that separated the two was a single skeleton summoned by Jean earlier.

Laranflura would tear through such a weak skeleton as easily as a piece of paper.

Fran abandoned her offensive completely. As we didn’t have enough time to use Black Lightning Roll, she rushed at full speed to shield Amanda.

However, we no longer had enough time to catch up.

Both Fran and I hastily began preparing healing magic. As long as Amanda doesn’t die instantly, we can heal her wounds immediately.

But Laranflura’s polearm ended up landing in someone other than Amanda.

「Gah…! Hahaha, too bad.」

Jean had somehow appeared between the two and took the hit in her place. Apparently, he had a technique for swapping places with his skeleton.

By utilizing this ability, he shielded Amanda. But that’s not to say he sacrificed himself.

「Mark, well done!」

The four bony arms growing from Jean’s back began to wriggle in response to Jean’s words. That said, all the arms had been snapped in half.

This was Mark, the new undead that Jean created for countering Nameless.

A bone armor with a will of its own, who can skillfully wield swords with the four arms growing from its back. It seems Mark sacrificed all four arms to weaken Laranflura’s strike.

Moreover, the armored body had considerable defensive capabilities.

Laranflura intended this hit to be fatal. While she did inflict a deep wound on Jean, it was far from taking his life.

Meanwhile, Jean commanded his other undead to bring Amanda and the others to safety.

（Jean, amazing!）

『Yeah! But let’s hurry and heal him up!』